A network switching device can forward packets of data between computer networks, computing devices, or a combination thereof. Furthermore, a network switching device can forward packets using the Internet Protocol (IP). When using the IP, each packet is encapsulated with a header comprising source and destination addresses for that packet. Each packet can be forwarded within a computer network or between computer networks based on its source and destination IP addresses.
A network switching device may be communicatively coupled to a computer network via one or more uplink interfaces. It may be advantageous for a network switching device to be communicatively coupled to a computer network via multiple uplink interfaces, for example, to improve availability, increase bandwidth, enable load balancing across the uplink interfaces, or a combination thereof. For instance, when multiple uplink interfaces of a network switching device are each communicatively coupled to a computer network via a different internet service provider (ISP) uplink, availability is improved, since the network switching device can continue to forward packets to the computer network even when one of the ISP uplinks experiences an internet service outage.